Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Thank you for your continued support! Today we’re seeing Travis Kelce join activist investor Jana Partners in Six Flags, housing prices reach a crossroads as inventory climbs, and energy firms pivot toward powering the AI boom.

🎢 Six Flags Activism
Travis Kelce and Jana Partners built a 9% stake in Six Flags to revive attendance and boost shareholder value after a 9% YoY drop in visits post-merger with Cedar Fair. The key question is whether the decline stems from consumer weakness or park experience issues that activists can realistically fix.

🏠 Housing Market at a Crossroads
U.S. home prices rose 0.2% in September as mortgage rates eased and buyers returned to the market. Inventory climbed 22% YoY to a six-year high, giving buyers more leverage even as lower rates and rising incomes keep prices from falling.

⚡ Energy Firms Chase the AI Power Boom
Anthropic and Google are finalizing a $50B–$100B cloud partnership as hyperscalers leased a record 7.4 GW of capacity in Q3 to fuel massive AI expansion. Oilfield giant Halliburton, one of the world’s largest energy service providers, is now moving into power generation for data centers as traditional drilling demand weakens and the energy transition accelerates.

30Y Mortgage: 6.17% (-5 bps) 

10Y Treasury Yield: 3.96% (-2 bps) 

WSJ Prime Rate: 7.25%

FTSE NAREIT Index: 780.71 (-0.43%) 

30-day SOFR Average: 4.17%

Goldman’s David Solomon says regional bank losses are isolated – CEO called recent fraud-related hits at Zions and Western Alliance “idiosyncratic” while urging tighter underwriting and predicting further bank consolidation (Bloomberg)

Wells Fargo’s Charlie Scharf says credit remains strong – CEO sees no cracks in the banking system despite recent fraud losses and expects Fed rate cuts as risk management for slowing growth (Reuters)

Insight: Earnings from Western Alliance and comments from Goldman and Wells Fargo suggest regional banks remain fundamentally healthy, with strong interest income and stable credit quality outweighing isolated fraud losses.

Investors flock to CRE secondaries for liquidity – Global real estate secondary transactions hit $24B in 2024, with GP-led deals making up 65% as sponsors seek to recapitalize and extend ownership terms (Bisnow)

Federal government pauses $11B in Army Corps projects – The shutdown halted infrastructure work across several states, mostly in blue and sanctuary cities (Bisnow)

U.S. home prices rose 0.2% MoM in September – Prices increased 3% YoY, the slowest pace since 2012, as high rates and rising inventory keep the market in a holding pattern (Redfin)

Active listings rose 22% YoY in September – Total inventory reached 1.4M homes, the highest since 2019, as Sun Belt and Midwest metros drove new supply while buyer demand held steady (Homes.com)

Homes selling below asking price hit six-year high in September – Just 25.3% of homes sold above list while the median sale price rose 1.7% YoY to $435,545, signaling stronger buyer leverage despite modest price gains (TheRealDeal)

Insight: After slight cooling in the summer, U.S. home prices rose 0.2% MoM in September as a 30 bps drop in mortgage rates helped steady demand. Active listings climbed 22% YoY to the highest since 2019, giving buyers more leverage as only 25.3% of homes sold above asking. Prices, however, are still inching higher aslower rates and rising incomes are keeping demand strong enough to absorb the added supply.

Coworking expands beyond downtowns as flexible offices spread to outer boroughs – Gowanus, Brooklyn leads the shift as operators like Industrious and WeWork open suburban locations to meet hybrid work demand (CommercialObserver)

Insight: This shift in coworking expansion aligns with a broader trend of tenants seeking offices near housing and transit to shorten commutes and encourage return-to-office participation. Because coworking spaces cater to independent professionals, freelancers, and small teams rather than large corporations, proximity and convenience matter far more to their clientele. A 10-minute walk to a neighborhood workspace to focus is far more appealing than a 30-minute (minimum) commute to a downtown office.

San Francisco rebounds from ‘doom loop’ fears – Crime has fallen to multi-decade lows and rents are rising as the city’s recovery accelerates, powered largely by the AI boom (WSJ) 

Microsoft exempts many sales staff from return-to-office mandate – Roles like commercial sales and solution engineering will retain flexible schedules as the company adopts a hybrid model (Bloomberg)

U.S. industrial absorption hit 60M SF in Q3 2025 – The strongest demand since early 2023, nearly matching new supply as fundamentals stabilize (Colliers)

Vacancy edged up to 7.4% – Just 4 bps higher and likely peaking as development slows and tenants absorb space (Colliers)

Construction pipeline shrank to 270M SF – The lowest since 2018, signaling a bottoming in new supply that could set up the next growth cycle (Colliers)

Retail divides ahead of Holiday 2025 – Placer.ai data shows affluent shoppers driving luxury and grocery traffic while lower-income consumers trade down, forcing retailers into early, aggressive discounting (Placer.ai)

Anthropic and Google in talks on $50B–$100B cloud deal – The agreement would expand Anthropic’s computing power and deepen Google’s investment and cloud partnership amid the escalating AI infrastructure race (Bloomberg)

Tech giants leased more data center capacity last quarter than in all of 2024 – Led by Oracle’s 5.4GW expansion for OpenAI’s Stargate venture, hyperscalers drove a record 7.4GW of U.S. leasing in Q3 (Bisnow)

Oilfield giant Halliburton pivots to data-center power – The company partnered with VoltaGrid to supply turbines and engines for AI data centers as fracking demand weakens and energy firms chase the booming digital power market (Bloomberg)

$5.3B Bitcoin miner CleanSpark pivots to AI data centers – The company is expanding into high-performance computing as mining profits decline (Bloomberg)

Homebuilder PulteGroup beat Q3 earnings and revenue expectations but still reported YoY declines as affordability challenges, weaker buyer confidence, and higher construction costs weighed on results (YahooFinance)

Pimco nets $2B gain from Meta data center debt – The firm’s $27B Hyperion financing surged above 110 cents on the dollar amid the AI infrastructure boom (Bloomberg)

Taconic Partners secures $130M refinancing for 817 Broadway office in New York, NY – GreenBarn, Sabal, and Ares Management provided the debt for the 14-story, 139K-SF Union Square property that is 99% leased to tech and venture tenants (TheRealDeal)

Triten Real Estate Partners and TPG Angelo Gordon secure $100M refinancing for 19-property IOS portfolio – Truist Bank provided the loan for assets spanning Texas, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and California (CommercialObserver)

Travis Kelce joins Jana Partners in 9% activist stake in Six Flags – The group plans to work with management to boost shareholder value and revive attendance at the struggling amusement park operator (CNBC)

Insight: Travis Kelce and Jana Partners aren’t the only activists eyeing $2.6B Six Flags Entertainment. Despite today’s 18% surge, shares are still down 46% YTD as Q2 attendance fell 9% YoY post-merger with Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. A few weeks ago, I covered an activist campaign by Land & Buildings, which holds about a 2% stake and is pressuring the company to unlock its $6 billion real estate portfolio through a REIT spin-off or sale.

The real question is whether this year’s drop in attendance reflects broader consumer weakness or issues with the park experience itself. I lean more toward the former, as Six Flags’ middle-income customer base mirrors the broader weakness across hospitality and retail, where the luxury segment remains strong while middle and lower-income consumers continue to trade down.

13th Floor Investments leads $68M purchase of 170-acre Broward County farmland for $1B mixed-use project – The Mainstreet at Coconut Creek plan includes 792 apartments, 414 townhomes, 296 condos, and 80K SF of grocery-anchored retail (CommercialObserver)

Ben-Josef Group acquires leasehold for The Chatwal Hotel in Manhattan, NY for $53M – Adams Hotels International sold the 76-room Times Square luxury property previously tied to Dream Hotel Group and Hyatt (CommercialObserver)

TA Realty acquires Hanover Walnut Creek apartments in Walnut Creek, CA for $163M – Houston-based Hanover Company sold the 285-unit complex completed in 2023, marking the city’s second $150M+ multifamily trade in two months (TheRealDeal)

Vistria Group and Standard Real Estate acquire Fox Valley Villages Apartments in Aurora, IL for $93M – The 420-unit complex was sold by Bridge Investment Group, with the buyers planning $8M in renovations across the 21-acre property (TheRealDeal)

DRA Advisors acquires Aurora at Summerfield Apartments in Aurora, IL for $88M – The 368-unit property was sold by Cantor Fitzgerald, marking DRA’s latest multifamily expansion in the Chicago suburbs (TheRealDeal)

EQT plans $250B in U.S. private capital, infrastructure, and real estate investments – The Swedish firm expects to deploy the funds over five years despite economic uncertainty (Bisnow)

Declaration Partners raises $303M for new U.S. real estate fund – The David Rubenstein-backed firm is targeting multifamily, industrial, and affordable housing assets amid renewed investor appetite (Bloomberg)

Apple backs $200M Bay Area affordable housing fund – Housing Trust Silicon Valley launched the initiative to build and preserve 7,400 affordable homes using flexible, below-market financing (Bisnow)

Western Alliance profit jumps 27% YoY despite fraud-linked losses – Lender reported $250M in Q3 earnings as strong interest income offset $31M in bad loans tied to a real estate investor group (Bloomberg)

California investor tied to $270M in bad loans behind bank fraud suits – Andrew Stupin faces lawsuits from multiple lenders including Zions, Western Alliance, and Banc of California over allegedly misrepresented real estate collateral (Reuters)

Proptech leaders warn of overhyped tech and tighter VC funding – Executives from DoorLoop, LeaseLock, and Roomrs say sustainability and real ROI will define the next wave of winners (CommercialObserver)

AI construction platform Acelab secures $14M Series A led by Navitas Capital with backing from JLL Spark and DivcoWest – The funding will expand its materials selection platform to interiors, engineering, and European markets (CommercialObserver)